Passengers report bicyclist was killed by train in Auburn

Kim Palaferri/Auburn JournalCyndie and Benni Klorer, Calaveras residents bound for Chicago, wait on the platform at the Auburn station for a new Amtrak crew to arrive and the train to be on its way again. "The train came to a quick stop and we waited two hours on the track (at the trestle)," Cyndie Klorer said.

Kim Palaferri/Auburn JournalThe Amtrak train hit the cyclist on the trestle near the Ophir Road exit of Interstate 80 at about 2 p.m., according to passengers and the Amtrak crew at the Auburn station.

Amtrak passengers were stopped for hours in Auburn Saturday after a train reportedly struck and killed a bicyclist about half a mile before the Nevada Street station.
“We had already had a couple of stops and delays, then we stopped right in the middle of the bridge over the freeway,” said Cyndie Klorer, traveling from her Burson home to Chicago with her husband, Benjamin. “We had no idea why.”
Then they saw a crowd starting to form outside the train, and Benjamin saw a man lying in the tracks, his body already covered.
“The train was just stopped,” said San Francisco resident Benjamin Emery, en route to Detroit. “It just slowed down and stopped, and after a while – actually, very quickly – the conductor came on and said, ‘We’re stopped here, there’s a medical emergency and we’re stopped here until further notice.’”
Emery said the train stayed at the scene for two hours before heading to Auburn, where they weren’t expected to leave until after 6 p.m. Passengers were told they had to wait to leave because the current crew could not travel any further, and a replacement crew was on its way.
Requests for official comment from Amtrak were directed to the public information office, which has not yet returned a call for comment. More details will be posted as they become available.
~ Krissi Khokhobashvili